


Old Friends Stay

by Undergrad_whos_sad



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Angst, Gen, Hallucinations, Rescue Missions, maybe?? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:27:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Undergrad_whos_sad/pseuds/Undergrad_whos_sad
Summary: After Order 66, Ahsoka Tano works to create a communications network for the rebellion, when her newest rebel cell is captured she has to back track, holding off old memories all the while.I'm reposting after some editing, probably a one shot.
Kudos: 7





	Old Friends Stay

It was a bad day, bad week, month, whatever. This past year had been hard, building a clandestine communication network up from nothing was no easy task, and the unceasing wall of cold from the force wasn't helping, to say the least. Pulling on the force during combat required so much more energy these days, not to mention mind tricks. Meditation only served in making her heartsick and nauseous simultaneously. A better Jedi-- or rather, force-wielder-- would probably suck it up and try to connect to the force anyway, but it was detrimental to her health at a time when she had to be on the top of her game. Maybe after she threw a coup, she could start trying to understand the force, but until then, it wasn't her problem. Well. Not her biggest one. 

That spot was currently held by a human girl who had as many braids in her hair as she had blasters. Rasa Kai. Her and her equally rash companions. 

She had half a mind to just let them rot, but they knew too much and if they would stop trying to blow up imperials they would be excellent communication officers, or in lay terms, spies. The Empire was a very pro-human institution, if the resistance was going to infiltrate the Empire then they needed to recruit humans to do it. But if these fools get arrested then it was all for naught.  
  
Ahsoka had been halfway to the Core to see after Leia and to ask to use R2D2 for one of her more complex missions when she got the transmission that the idiots had been captured in Kijimi. She recruited them, so it was her problem according to Mon Mothma. Dutifully, she turned around, refueled and returned to Kijimi, a three day trip. Bail rarely invited her to Alderaan these days, as was wise, and it was probable that after this impromptu rescue mission there would be no time to visit before Ahsoka had to deal with her next task. Knowing she was going to miss meeting with both Leia and R2 because of these idiots did nothing to improve her mood. 

The building they were being held in was an old separatist base, and on her first (and official) mission on Kijimi she had gained access to the building's blueprints. When Ahsoka wasn't memorizing the plans she was training. She went through her katas with both her lightsabers and a pair of viroblades that she had picked up on Nal Hutta a few months ago (also managing to blow up a warehouse's worth of spice was entirely an accident, she was just there to refuel and stock up on weapons, but Bail still failed to believe her). The viroblades were no lightsabers, but they were military grade and could pierce stormtrooper armor, they got the job done without informing all imperials onsite that a Jedi was among them. 

Currently, she was finishing a ration pack probably made before she was born, and trying not to think about how Rex would commiserate with her, when the autopilot dropped out of hyperspace and Kijimi came into the sightlines of the bridge's viewport. She sighed and forced down the last of the ancient protein bar before switching to manual mode and flying down to the space port.   
Two good things about Kijimi, the only thing the Imps had here was a communication center, not the space ports, which were still privately owned, meaning no Imps were keeping track of who came and went, and Kijimi was an immigrant's planet, meaning a togruta wouldn't be out of place like they would be in places like Naboo or Onderon. When humans migrated, it seemed, they rarely did so half-heartedly. 

With viroblades on her belt, explosives and other weapons in her pack, she lowered the ramp and entered the space port. A bored looking Zabrak woman approached, demanding payment for the use of her space. Ahsoka tossed her the credits then went on her way, pleased that the Zabrak didn't ask questions. 

Kijimi was cramped and bustling, much like the mid-lower levels of Coruscant. Ahsoka moved through the city with ease, she had spent a month there, setting up for this cell's missions.   
A month wasted. Just another thing to be pissed about. 

She came upon the sewer access panel closest to the imperial complex and used the force to open it. She hopped down into the access tunnel and replaced the panel, and slid down the ladder before anyone noticed what she was doing. The stench had her eyes watering and if she opened her mouth to breathe it was like she could taste it. 

Not thinking to bring a mask was her first gross oversight, but the walkways were dry so it wasn't all bad. The tunnels reminded her of the sewers of Coruscant and Mandalore, but the smell had her thinking back to the Citadel mission and the gas line she had travelled through. 

_The only thing that smelled worse than that was Captain Tarkin_ , Ahsoka smiled at her insult and looked over her shoulder to tell Rex or Anakin but no one was there. 

No one was there. Not anymore. It was like losing a limb. You keep thinking it's there, you swear you can feel it, but it's gone and there's nothing to be done. Ahsoka missed them, imagined talking with them every day, every night. But her memory wasn't enough and right now it was distracting her. Taking her away from the mission. 

She reached the access hatch she wanted and started climbing, it was always easier going down than up, but eventually she reached the top. She paused, using the force to search for nearby life forms. Nothing. Not that it was any guarantee these days, but Ahsoka shrugged it off and popped the heavy panel open with a shove of her shoulder. 

  
She stuck her head out and glanced either way just as two stormtroopers turned the corner, immediately spotting her. 

  
Typical. 

  
"What are you doing here?" The one on her left demanded. 

  
For an instant she considered lying, but couldn't think of a good enough lie and couldn't dredge up enough energy to sound confident about it. What was the point of hauling these viroblades around if she wasn't going to use them? 

  
She shot out from the tunnel a little awkwardly, but managed to dodge the first of their blaster bolts. 

  
Two swift Makashi strikes, one to the gut, one to the neck and both of them were down. No matter how botched this job was, at least she got to kill some fascists.  
She made the rest of the way to the armory nearly uncontested.

  
She set the explosives carefully, in places that would be hard to detect but could still manage to deliver structural damage to the complex. 

  
Her pack significantly lighter, she stalked to the holding cells. A quick force trick and the door was sliding open to reveal five human idiots in various forms of disarray. She imagined Kix crossing his arms and grumbling under his breath at all their unnecessary wounds.

  
"Fulcrum!"

  
They scrambled to their feet, none of them seemed too injured, Ahsoka unlocked their cuffs with a loose hand gesture, and threw her pack at their ring leader, Rasa Kai. 

  
"Time to go." Ahsoka ordered, as they passed around blasters. The pistols were nothing compared to the DC rifles that she preferred but they were better than nothing. 

  
"You came back for us?" Rasa asked. 

  
"You're welcome." Ahsoka found it in her to give the girl what she hoped was a comforting smile and not a grimace. 

  
"Are we gonna blow some stuff up while we're here?" Asked Rasa's gunner, whose name Ahsoka had forgotten despite her best intentions. 

  
"Handled." Ahsoka showed them the detonator blinking on her left bracer and the gunner's mad grin reminded her of Hardcase and she had to look away. 

  
She saw the clones everywhere these days, and it hurt everytime. She couldn’t force away her image of Kix, he was staring her down, searching for injuries, she frowned, usually it wasn’t hard to stop seeing them after she thought about it. 

  
“What do we do now?” Serai, one of the younger spies, asked. 

  
Ahsoka refocused, angling her head toward the left corridor, "We're going out the front door."

  
They ran down the hallways, taking out whoever they came across. It was easy. It was a communications complex, not a fully stocked military outpost. Just like every other easy mission, Ahsoka almost found that she was enjoying herself. 

  
There was something nice about winning for once, especially with the imagined presence of her clone brothers. The feeling had been fleeting since before Mandalore and just about nonexistent afterwards. At least, stormtroopers were easier to fight than clones. Ahsoka would know. At least they had the decency to change the helmet design. 

  
Hardcase, Fives, Echo, Rex, they all flitted in and out of her mind’s eye, it was easy for her to dismiss them, to stay on target as she raced down the corridors, but Kix remained a constant. She tried not to worry about what that meant for already deteriorating mental health. 

  
The unit did well, only one of them received a glancing blaster bolt to the arm. But the moment they crashed through the front gates the force _twisted_. 

  
It was everything not to cry out, to keep running. Somewhere. Far away. People were dying. Worse than Teth, worse than any time spent on Felucia, the only feeling that out matched the pain and terror of this one was Order 66 itself. Her shields barely managed to block out the worst of it. _The Wookies, they were dying_. 

  
"Ahsoka?" 

  
One of them said her name and Ahsoka realized she had faltered, inadvertently slowing the group. She grit her teeth against the wild thrashing pain that was her connection to the force, and waved them forward, "Keep going! Port 12!" 

  
Now that they knew their destination, all Ahsoka had to do was keep in step with the soldier beside her. She focused on her breathing, her balance, the smell of sweat and spices that marked the planet as Kijimi. If the force wasn't acting like a maelstrom she'd almost believe that she had slipped into a moving meditation. 

  
The next thing she knew they were at port, some part of her remembered to throw the Zabrak some more credits and to hit the detonator on her gauntlet before running up the ramp to her ship. 

  
"Rasa. Pilot." Ahsoka ordered before gasping for breath and doubling over, it was like her whole body was covered in goosebumps. 

  
A hand grabbed her arm from behind, and she lashed out, teeth bared, her viroblade swinging in a deadly arc. 

  
"Whoa! Easy, sir! It's just me." 

  
She halted her blade an inch away from the medic's throat. His hands were raised in surrender but there was no fear in his brown eyes. His expression. His spirit in the force, kind and steady, was so much like Kix, and so much warmer than everything that surrounded her, that her heart clenched. It couldn’t be Kix. He was dead, like everyone else. The force was messing with everything. 

  
"I'm sorry." She said as steadily as she could as the ship sped through the atmosphere and into space. She lowered her blades, putting them away slowly. 

  
"Let's get you to med bay." 

  
It was like being a padawan again. The aftermath of so many battles, stumbling from the transport to med bay after an assignment was practically a ritual in those days. 

  
The ship entered space and she let the medic lead her to a small room with a small bed set into the wall with a row of cabinets on the other side. She collapsed onto the hard cot and shivered. Everything was cold. Her shields wavered then fell. It felt like the last moment of an electrocution that never ended: her muscles were shaking and exhaustion crashed down on her. 

  
"They're dying." She couldn't help the words that crossed her lips. "They're dying." 

  
"Shh...it's alright." The words hummed her montrals, and there was a sharp pinch at her neck. 

  
"Hey!" She protested, immediately launching to an upright position, but knew in the next instant that she had been injected with a sleep aid.

  
"Fekking...sedatives," Ahsoka muttered as she sat back, muscles relaxing of their own volition, "Fekkin' fake Kix...shouldn't have done that." 

  
She couldn't get her shields back up before the darkness swept in and sleep took her. 

  
It was a bad day for Ahsoka Tano, but certainly not the worst. 

**Author's Note:**

> Did Ahsoka accidentally rescue Kix from prison? Or is she just feeling particularly sentimental?  
> Who knows? Not Ahsoka, that's for certain.


End file.
